Friday, August 13, 2010

I Have Arrived!

I was supposed to take a 6am flight from Ontario, CA to Denver, CO then to DC to Kuwait & arrive at 1:35pm.But did that happen? NO. As I was sitting on the plane- tired b/c my family wouldn't let me sleep that night, the pilot announced there was a malfunction somewhere & the mechanic needed to take a look. Then some minutes later, the pilot said the mechanic could not find anything wrong so they needed to run a computer diagnostic test on the plane & that's when he announced there was a Starter Valve problem & we needed to get off the plane b/c the flight got cancelled. Thus the madness began- although I would like to give a shout out to GOD forkeeping us from flying b/c something could have gone horribly wrong.

I finally arrived in Kuwait at 10:30 after taking a shuttle from Ontario to LAX, then boarding to San Francisco to Frankfurt, Germany (OMG was this a LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONG flight but how I LOVED going back to Germany), and then finally a 4 hour flight to Kuwait.

First thing I noticed about Kuwait was actually when I boarded the flight from Germany. Most women wore head coverings. I felt bad b/c I had gotten my hair done before I left (although I was going on day 2 by the time I got to Germany). The Koran teaches that the most tempting thing about a woman is her hair, thus, the Koran instructs women to be veiled b/c men are too weak to handle the overwhelming beauty of a woman. LOL!

One other thing I noticed was when the flight attendants were passing out food. It is Ramadan & Muslims are supposed to fast every day until September 9 & break their fast at night. So I wondered if all the Muslims on the plane would reject the food since it was day time. Now, I can't assume every Arab is actually Muslim but every person sitting around me- including the women who wore hijabs, did actually eat- even though in Kuwait it is against their law to eat, drink, chew gum, or smoke in public during the day- including foreigners.

The Immigration/Customs process was as fast as lightning! A Philippina woman held a sign w/ my name. She took my passport and we walked to one of the shortest lines for Passport Customs, where a bunch of Indian hindi women were gathered in a group. They looked very poor. But there was only one woman in line before me. At the counter, it was very quick. Then we cut through all the other lines and on to getting my baggage. Then went through one more check out to check my bags. They asked me if I had any gold in my suitcase and so I pulled out a mirror. The man said I didn't have to open up my suitcase but I started to and he said no, I don't have to. I got my stuff and the lady w/ me said that sometimes men will stop a woman with a pretty face and use an excuse like that just to stall her.

Then I walk through the main airport lobby and I see a bunch of men wearing long white dresses w/ their heads covered in a white thing & their thick band. It was just like on tv! Not every woman was covered or veiled. I saw a KFC & Starbucks. The airport looked way more like a mall actually. There were a lot of men- more than women. It seemed like the men were the ones who wore those long outfits & only a few women were completely veiled in black.

I cannot believe I am actually here!

I was taken to my apartment. They gave me lots of storage space!

Then we (another girl flew in that night too as a re-hire) went to eat a place called Diva's and their food was VERY fresh & tasty. I ordered a mango juice to drink. I thought it would be very liquidy & juicey but it was very thick. I loved it!

just for information, muslims are encouraged to eat during travels in ramadan. when they return home or settle for more than a few days outside their home then they have to return to fasting. all days spent eating must be made up again after ramadan. if yowant to be sure about islam teachings ask a practicing muslim.